Candidates report widespread issue of missing signage in March

Russell Ledbetter

Published 5:14 pm, Sunday, March 30, 2014

In the 50 years Dr. Walter Wilkerson has been chair of the Montgomery County Republican Party, he has seen it all, he said. So widespread reports of Republican candidate’s campaign signs being stolen, both large and small, throughout the county in a recent wave is no surprise, he said.

“That happens all the time,” Wilkerson said. “It happens every election cycle. I respect that those things are expensive, but after 50 years in this business, it happens every election cycle.”

Wilkerson reported he has received no complaints thus far from any of the Republican candidates.

And if a rival candidate’s supporters are stealing signs, “usually a candidate doesn’t know anything about it,” Wilkerson said.

However candidates in both the Montgomery County Judge’s run-off and the State Rep. District 16 run-off have experienced, en masse over recent weeks, campaign signs being stolen in large numbers throughout the county.

“I called TxDOT (Texas Department of Transportation) to see if we’d crossed over into the right-of-way,” Montgomery County Judge candidate Craig Doyal said. “I don’t think that’s the case because every sign we’ve placed, we’ve had the property owner’s permission.”

Doyal, however, said in light of the fact that the campaign sign thefts have been spread so far apart throughout the county rather than all in one locale has him wondering.

Doyal’s large 4-foot by 8-foot signs, which he usually posts — again on private property, with permission of the landowner, he said — are back-to-back, at nearly $50 apiece. But because the loss is of two large signs, the tally comes in at more than $100 apiece with the signs placed back-to-back.

“I’m kind of like Dr. Wally, I expected a few signs to disappear,” Doyal said. But the widespread loss of signage throughout the county has cost Doyal hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

Doyal has had large 4-by-8 signs and 4-by-4 signs either stolen or removed, he said, along Texas 105 East, Texas 105 West, and along both the Walden and Rayford Road areas en masse since after the March 4 primaries, as well as a large number of yard signs.

Doyal’s opponent, Montgomery County Judge candidate Mark Bosma, said countywide sign theft has been directed at his campaign as well, “though there is nothing you can do about it. It is nothing to complain about because it is part of the political arena,” Bosma said.

Bosma’s campaign’s largest sign, a 4-by-8, depending on whether or not it has a picture on it and how much information is on the sign, Bosma said, can cost his campaign anywhere between $39 upwards to $125 a sign.

“You just replace them,” Bosma said. “I don’t pay any attention to it. I have had a lot of yard signs stolen in the Imperial Oaks area. It’s part of it.”

Doyal said he will try and make the missing signs work in his favor.

“Once a sign has been there a period of time, it starts to blend in with the scenery,” Doyal said. “I think we’ll leave the blank spots and perhaps re-post the signs once we get closer to the (run-off) election.”

Neither candidate believes it is the other directing their campaign to steal the signage of their opponent, both Bosma and Doyle said.

“I would be real surprised,” Bosma said. “I’m sure he said the same thing.”

“I don’t suspect him,” Doyal said. “I’d be very surprised if that was the case.”

State Rep. District 16 candidate Will Metcalf said a large number of his signage has gone missing in recent weeks.

Up to 10 of Metcalf’s large 4-by-8 signs, which were posted on private property with the permission of the landowner, he said, and in some cases whole neighborhoods of Metcalf yard signs (40 to 50) were removed from throughout the county in the weeks after the March 4 Republican primary, he said.

“It’s tough to say who’s taking them,” Metcalf said. “They are expensive, but I just bought some more to replace them.”

“I’ve got signs disappearing, and we’re just gonna replace every sign that disappears,” Metcalf said. “We will replace every one. And it’s happening everywhere. No one particular area.”

Metcalf agreed with his opponent, State Rep. District 16 candidate Ted Seago, that missing signage is “part of the election process.”

Seago said while his campaign hasn’t experienced a large amount of signage theft—“It’s not blatant. Some people are just clearing their lots,” he said— he has had to replace a lot of weather-damaged signs.

“We’ve had to replace wind-damaged signs,” Seago said. “Just due to wear and tear.”

Montgomery County Elections Administrator Suzie Harvey agrees with Wilkerson about the large loss of signage of certain candidates throughout the month of March as just more routine electioneering.

“We don’t generally get a lot of complaints about this kind of thing,” Harvey said. “I would consider this more personal property theft, but other than saying that, the authority to deal with something like that doesn’t fall under our office.”